Toreros!

Noun, plural of to-re-ro.

Spanish, from Late Latin taurārius, from Latin taurus.

1. A bullfighter, esp. a matador.

2. A matador or one of the supporting team during a bull fight.

3. The University of San Diego men's basketball team, my brother's alma mater and champions of the West Coast Conference (aka the Catholic League + Pepperdine), who just knocked off Connecticut, one of the beasts of the Big East, on a last-second shot in overtime of an opening round game of the NCAA Tournament.

Madness indeed!

To the Hoop!

Thursday brings the tip-off to the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament, the annual 64-team hoops playoff otherwise known as The Big Dance, or March Madness.

So, pull up a chair, turn on the TV or log on to the Internet, close your office doors (if you have them) to better dodge the bosses, and watch the drama unfold.

C'mon, y'all, they're playing bas-ket-ball, as Kurtis Blow used to say.

This year, I have North Carolina beating Wisconsin on one side of the Final Four draw, with UCLA taking revenge on Texas on the other side, only to lose to the Tar Heels in the championship game.

My bracketology history is woeful, given that I generally never pick the right early-round upsets nor am I much good at predicting which highly seeded team will embarrass themselves by going out in round two.

Last year went largely according to pre-tournament seeding form ... hence my miraculously winning my college pals' pool and finishing in the top three of two others to cash out for some nice ancillary take-home pay.

Repeating that performance this year is basically a pipedream, but if dreams came true, oh, wouldn't that be nice.